Tender Loving care
by lauren2381
Summary: Jason needs a favor, Clay needs some sleep, and Emma just needs some TLC. "Emmie K, I got ya," He soothed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Emma quieted down and snuggled her head into Clay's shoulder, still breathing quickly. Trent's jaw dropped, Ray's jaw dropped even farther. They had never seen this side of Bravo Six, and after this situation was han
1. Chapter 1

From the moment the helo landed, all Clay wanted was a shower, a beer, and a nice long date with his bed before calling Emma to let her know that they were all home safe and sound, for the most part. He had sand in places sand should never end up, and a headache from Sonny bitching about all of the things that were trying to kill him, because apparently a fear of the jungle just wasn't enough for the ornery Texan, but he was alive and all of his limbs were still intact. Just as he was finishing putting his cage back together, before leaving he saw Jason following Blackburn looking ready to spit nails. Before he went into the OPs center he pulled Clay aside.

"Hey Kid, need a favor."

"Yeah boss?" No matter how tired Clay was, he would never not do something Jason asked of him, not after he saved his ass from being fried once again. He still hadn't completely recovered from nearly eating sand after the RPG strike nearly took him out.

"Mind checking on the kids for me? Emma hasn't called in a few days." Normally after a mission went FUBAR, Jason looked tense, but when Clay really looked at Jason he saw a different kind of tension in his shoulders and the lines of his face seemed deeper than before, Clay and Emma had become fast friends from his time on Bravo. She was one of the only ones from home that checked in on him when he was stateside. Clay knew that Emma wouldn't just miss a check in, and the pit in his stomach began to form. No matter how tired he was, Clay wouldn't be able to rest until he knew that Emma was safe.

And that's how Clay found himself wearily walking up the driveway, eyes struggling to stay open. He figured he'd find Emma, get her to call Jason, and then he could rack out on their couch with her while he waited for Jason to finish up the AARs. Standing at the front door, he knocked and rang the bell. Waited a few minutes. Looked through the window. Knocked again. Waited another minute, then tried the knob. When the door swung open, Clay cursed under his breath and reached for his sidearm, only to realize that he wasn't armed, because this wasn't Jbad, it was suburban Virginia Beach for crying out loud.

Heart pounding, he started to clear the first floor of the house. Finding the downstairs empty, he slowly started to walk up the stairs when he heard a groan. Clay stopped short on the stairs and waited, thinking he was imagining the sound after being awake longer than was technically safe. The groan stopped and then started again, but this time Clay didn't hesitate and ran, bursting through Emma's door.

"Emma? Em? where are you?" He scanned the room but couldn't find Emma, only heard her groaning in pain. Thinking the worst, Clay begin to frantically scan the room, but still couldn't visualize Emma. He forced himself to stop, slow his racing heart rate and breathe. In. Out. In. Out. What do you see Clay, focus! He looked at her bed and noticed the rumpled covers, the box of tissues by her bed, and the trash can near her pillow. Ok, he thought to himself. She's sick, no one was hurting her. She was safe. Once he calmed himself down enough to slow the pounding in his ears and the lump in his throat slowly started to disappear. He heard the groan again, this time coming from the bathroom between Emma and Mikey's room. Pushing the door open, Clay felt his heart stop once again when he saw Emma lying on the floor, pale, and not moving.

"Emma?" He called out, as he knelt down next to the blonde beauty. She was warm to the touch, but didn't respond to his voice. When he gently placed his hand on her shoulder, she rolled towards him, instinctively seeking the comfort that his presence provided her.

"Cl'y" She mumbled, opening her eyes briefly. "Where's dad?" Her eyes fluttered shut again. In that instant, Clay knew that he needed help, and more importantly that Emma needed help. So he did what he was beaten into his head from the moment he joined Bravo, he called his brothers.

Trent, Brock, Sonny and Ray had all managed to escape the AARs and headed out for a beer, mostly to keep an eye on Sonny who was chasing after another young lady with a name that ended in -y, hopefully her name wasn't Chastity this time. That one had taken all of Ray's charm to get them out of the bar in one piece that night and he did not have the patience for that tonight. He wanted to drink his beer, then go home to Naima and snuggle his kids. But of course, he made plans and God laughed at him. Loudly. Coming back from the bar he caught the tail end of the story that Sonny was telling Trent.

"... and THAT my fine friend," Sonny drawled, "is why I do not fuck with scorpions. They're the sharks of the desert man." Sonny was gesturing wildly with his ever present toothpick as Brock and Trent tried not to laugh at the man.

Before Ray could even get a word out, his phone rang. Seeing it was Spenser, he tried to put all the beers down on the table before spilling them everywhere, but he couldn't get it out of his pocket fast enough before it went to his voicemail. Just as he was about to call the kid back, Trent's phone rang. Sharing a look with Ray, he answered the phone, but put it on speaker. His gut told him that they would soon all be going after Bravo six. Trent couldn't even get a word out before Clay's panicked voice came through the line.

"Trent? Trent, I need help." With that one sentence, Sonny laid some bills on the table, Brock packed up Cerberus, and Ray took out his phone to call Jason. Apparently the kid had gone and gotten himself into trouble, again. Something Ray wasn't even sure was possible this close after a mission where Clay had nearly been blown up. Again. But this was Clay Spenser, trouble could find him in a padded room.

"Clay? Where are you? Are you hurt? We're coming to get ya," Trent soothed Clay as best he could over the phone, but it didn't help much, as Clay rushed out.

"I'm fine, I'm at Jason's" The phone connection shook and they heard Clay talking to someone, but couldn't make out the words or who he was talking to. What they could make out was the underlying panic that Clay was trying to tamp down while talking to them.

The boys stopped short, if he was at Jason's, but was fine, where was Jason?

"Brother," Ray choked out, "Is Jason there with you?"

"No, just come to Jason's I need help here. Bring your med kit." With that a groan and cry of pain came over the line before the phone clicked, and the call ended.

"Alright boys, let's move out" They moved swiftly towards Ray's car and hurtled towards the Haye's house, each silently wondering what they were walking into, but were unprepared for the sight that they would find.

Emma knew she was sick, there was no denying it. But then again, a cold wasn't the end of the world, and especially when there were things to get done. With her dad deployed, she was in charge of Mikey until he came back, which meant making sure he went to school, had a ride to hockey practice, and ate something relatively nutritious besides the pizza from the joint down the street. Pulling herself out of her bed, she drove Mikey to school that morning and called herself out of school for the day, there was no way she was going to be able to pay attention to calculus with a migraine that felt like it was trying to split her head from the inside out. Emma toyed with the idea of calling Naima to come check on her, but felt silly. She had a cold, it would go away in a few days. No need to bother the busy woman, especially now that RJ had just started sleeping through the night.

As Emma lay down in bed, she broke out in a cold sweat and threw the covers off before falling into a restless sleep, wishing that her mom was there to smooth her hair back and sing her to sleep. Tears stung her eyes, but Emma refused to let them fall. She would see her mother in her dreams.

Some time later, it could have been days, could have been hours, Emma woke up with a start. Sat for a minute then rush to the bathroom before getting sick. Flushing the toilet, Emma rested on the cool tile of the bathroom floor. And that's all she remembered before waking up in Clay Spenser's arms.

Seeing Emma passed out on the floor was the most terrifying experience of Clay Spenser's life, and he'd seen some scary shit. Drawing on his meager medical training, Clay knelt down next to Emma and started to check for obvious injuries. She wasn't bleeding anywhere, was breathing, albeit rapidly, and didn't have any lumps on her head. She was hot to the touch, and damp, having sweat through her pajama top. Sitting down next to the sink, Clay pulled her into his lap and tried to wake her gently, counting the minutes until his brothers arrived, until Trent arrived.

Emma stirred gently, her eyes still disoriented. She blinked, then with a start sat up. "Mikey! I need to get Mikey!" She struggled weaker than a newborn kitten to get out of Clay's arms, too weak to get up without help.

"Emma, Em, slow down," Clay pushed her back into his lap. "Where's Mikey?" Clay's heart began to pound once again, thinking that the boy was somewhere in the house, sick, and Clay had missed him in his search for Emma.

"At school," Emma mumbled as she licked her lips, feeling the rise of bile in her throat once more. "I have to pick him up from school."

"Em, it's ten o'clock, he's still in class. Stay down, you're sick"

"I need to get up Clay, I'm fine." She struggled again this time managing to turn towards the toilet before getting sick again. Clay knelt behind her, holding her hair back and felt tears prick at his own eyes in sympathy. After being knocked in the head a time or two, Clay knew that vomiting with a headache hurt more than the headache itself.

"Em you're not getting up until I know that you're one hundred percent ok." Once the toilet was flushed and Emma fell back into his arms, Clay started rocking her gently while smoothing down her hair. He looked down at his watch and prayed that his brothers would be making an appearance soon, Emma needed more than he could give her.

Ray was pushing his truck as fast as he dared, not wanting to be delayed from a well meaning cop, but still needing to reach his brother. Scenarios were running through his mind and he was sure that Trent was even more anxious than him. The normally calm medic was going through his med kit and pulling out things that he wasn't even sure were medical tools. Sonny's knee was bouncing and he was double checking the gun he carried on his ankle while off base. He saw Brock raise an eyebrow at Trent, but then discreetly pulled out a plastic bag and let Cerberus get a good whiff.

"What in the holy hell is that Brock?" Sonny called out from the front seat.

"We keep losing the kid, foolproof way to make sure we've always got a scent to find the kid with." Seeing the looks of disbelief, he opened the bag to show Sonny a shirt that he had swiped from Clay's cage when he wasn't looking.

"Where do you think we're going to lose the kid? Said he was at Jay's"

"You never know with him, Son, you never know"

The tension in the car amped up when they pulled into the driveway, the door wide open. The boys jogged up the walkway and just like Clay, they cleared the bottom floor before moving up towards the stairs with Trent leading the way.

Trent had very few certainties in his time as Bravo's medic. He knew that Jason would never admit to pain, Ray always wanted the least amount of pain medication, and that Brock would only accept treatment once Cerberus was ok. Sonny was a wily one, but with the promise of a good beer, he'd accept anything Trent thought was necessary. With Clay, Trent had no certainties and never knew what was coming next. He was fully prepared to have another medical enigma on his hands, but what he wasn't prepared for was the Kid sitting up on the floor holding his Master Chief's daughter in his arms, looking fit as a fiddle.

Clay heard movement downstairs and once again kicked himself for not having anything to defend himself with, not that he was moving much with Emma still draped over his lap. He strained his ears, and then recognized the click of nails on the stairs. Cerberus. The calvary had arrived.

"Cerberus?" He called out, and then a flurry of activity happened all at once. The boys took the stairs double time, but before he saw them, the hair missile found them and barked. Loudly.

After that, the boys rushed into the room and everything started happening all at once. Ray started praying, Brock stared blindly, and Sonny swore a blue streak that would have made Blackburn blush.

"Spense, talk to me what happened" Trent forced his voice to remain calm as he knelt next to them, though his hands shook and he reached for Spenser's arm.

"Boss asked me to come check on her, she missed the check in for yesterday and today. I..I.. found her like this. Didn't know what to do." Clay felt himself start to relax, his brothers were here, he didn't have to be hyper alert anymore.

"Clay, can you pick her up? I want to move her to the bed." Trent looked in Clay's eyes, searching for any hint of doubt, before turning to Ray. "Sonny, go down and find the gatorade, but not the red one, we don't need anyone puking." The boys chuckled at that, remembering all the times Clay had hurled after accidentally drinking some of the red juice. "Brock get some towels from the closet and some ice." Both men hurried to get the supplies that Trent requested, wondering how exactly they had once again ended up in a situation where Trent called the shots, especially when they were home.

By the time Trent turned back towards Clay, he had Emma settled in bed again, and was holding her hand, stroking her forehead gently with the other. Trent shared a loaded glance with Ray at the outright tenderness that Clay showed their boss's daughter, something they had yet to see from their cocky, arrogant rookie.

"Clay?" Trent's voice startled him and he dropped his hand from Emma's forehead before trying to get off of the bed. The moment he let go of Emma's hand, she cried out.

"Don't… no…" She started rustling around on the bed, twisting and turning. Clay glanced back at Trent before kicking off his boots and crawling on the other side of the blonde, not even sparing a glance for his brothers in the room, only caring about Emma.

"Emmie K, I got ya," He soothed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Emma quieted down and snuggled her head into Clay's shoulder, still breathing quickly. Trent's jaw dropped, Ray's jaw dropped even farther. They had never seen this side of Bravo Six, and after this situation was handled, they were all going to have words about how this 'relationship' developed. This was more than a man checking in on another man's daughter. This was tenderness, compassion. This was love.

"Spenser, I need to know. What happened here?" Trent knelt on the side of the bed nearest Emma and started taking her vital signs, looking more and more concerned, especially when he took her temperature.

"Jace asked me to come by and check on her, she missed the check ins."

"I know that part Spense, you told me. How'd she end up like this?" Trent pulled out his stethoscope and listened to Emma's chest before trying to move her forward so he could listen to her lungs, but Clay held on tightly, not letting Trent jostle her more than necessary. When Clay refused to let him examine her, he looked into his eyes and saw the fear that was lurking underneath the forced calm that was threatening to break free.

"Ray?" Trent called out while still looking Clay in the eyes. "Can you come help me shift Emma? I need to listen to her lungs."

Ray approached slowly, treating Clay like the stray dog that they had found in Jbad on their last deployment. Hands held out in front of him, he moved slowly towards Trent not wanting to spook Spenser

"Clay, I want you to support her back, don't let go. Ray come here and hold her shoulders. I'm going to listen for a minute then you can hold her again, ok brother." The men moved together as one unit, trusting that Trent wouldn't put them through anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. Once they got her settled again, Trent pulled out his med kit and began to start an IV. Before Trent could get any medication flowing, Clay interrupted roughly. "Wait, what are you giving her?"

"Just fluids Clay, you've had them before. Why?"

"She had med allergies, where's her phone." Another long glance was shared between Trent and Ray. The kid knew enough about Emma to know her medication allergies, something that not even Ray knew and he had known the kid for her entire life.

Ray searched the nightstand before handing the phone over to Clay, who quickly typed in the password, before accessing the note where she kept her medication allergies. Trent quickly scanned them, noticing that they were mostly narcotics and other pain killing medication, and looked at Clay again. "I'm not giving her anything on this list Clay, just fluids. That ok?"

Clay nodded and rested once more against the headboard, still holding Emma.

Brock and Sonny raced into the room with the gatorade and towels packed with ice. Seeing Spenser on the bed with Emma in his arms, Sonny started to open his mouth before a sharp look from Bravo Two shut him up really quick.

"Emma said that she wasn't feeling well last week, but that she had a cold. Didn't want to bother Naima with it."

Ray's head snapped towards Spenser, who had snatched a towel from Brock and wiped her forehead gently from the sweat that had collected from her fever. He didn't know why Emma wouldn't want to bother his wife when she was sick, Naima would have been here in a heartbeat if she knew.

"She's been sick a week? Like this?" Trent questioned sharply.

"No, at least I don't think so. She texted me that she felt sick, but last I heard it was a cough and some stomach pains. Not this. I would have told Jace if it was like this. Would have called Naima myself if it was like this"

"What are you thinking brother?" Ray asked Trent.

"Nasty case of the flu. You said she's been vomiting today?"

"Yeah twice when I was here with her." Clay looked down worriedly at her. The adrenaline was starting to come down and it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

"Spense, Spenser!" Clay opened his eyes rapidly to find Trent's eyes staring back at him. "Want you to drink the gatorade, you're starting to look a little shocky."

"Take care of Em, Trent. I'm fine"

"Well then you can be fine and drink the gatorade, all of it, no excuses." Trent finished setting the IV up and then gathered the damp towels from Brock to start trying to cool Emma down. He glanced up at Clay and noticed his eyes were closed and the gatorade bottle was hanging loosely in his hand, empty. At least the kid had listened to instructions before passing out. Even better was that no one had to carry his ass to an exfil after he passed out, he was already in a bed.

"Is everyone just going to ignore the elephant in the room here?" Sonny drawled. "Wonder boy here clearly knows a thing or two about Sunshine over there."

"Oh no Sonny, we're going to get some answers here, don't you worry about that brother." Ray reassured him, "But let's let them sleep, we'll find out more when he's not so panicked. Trent, you gonna start an IV in him as well?"

"Might as well, the kid gets dehydrated faster than anyone I've ever seen." Trent made quick work of starting another IV and then began to clean up around him. Brock whistled lowly and Cerberus jumped up on the bed, circled, and nestled himself between Emma and Clay, with his snout resting protectively on Emma's stomach.

"What?" Brock said defensively, "Cerb's not going to let them out of his sight, we can rack out for bit on the couch, and when they wake up, we get the answers we want."

"That there's a good plan oh might dog whisperer." Sonny clapped Brock on the shoulder and with that four Navy SEALS made their way down to the living room, shut and locked the front door, and claimed a spot on the couch, protecting their sleeping brother upstairs.

And that is exactly how Jason found them once he got home from the AAR debrief from hell, a dog pile that was missing a dog and a daughter that had still yet to check. At least Mikey called him and told him he was staying over the Porter's, one less kid to give him gray hairs.

And he had three of those now.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a warm summer day and Emma was enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze, and the family that surrounded her to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Her dad was home for her birthday for the first time in three years and had brought the men that she had called 'uncle' for her entire life. Uncle Brock was playing fetch with Cerb and laughing with Mikey, Uncle Sonny was trying to charm the pants off of Aunt Lisa, Uncle Trent and Uncle Ray were flipping burgers, and Dad was sweet-talking her mom to try and sneak a swipe of icing before they cut the cake. Life was good, Emma was happy with a sunny smile fixed on her face.

Throughout her scanning of the backyard, she counted one more head than normal, and had to rack her brain for the name of the new guy on Bravo. Payton? Andy? She knew it ended in an '-ay' but couldn't for the life of her remember what his name was. Either way, the man looked miserable. He was sitting next to Sonny and Davis, but they were clearly not trying to fit him into the conversation. Emma wasn't stupid, she knew that her Uncle Sonny could be a prickly bear when he wanted to be, but this man was his brother, surely that meant that he could include him in a conversation? In her musings, she didn't realize that someone had stepped up next to her until she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder.

"You alright Emmie? You look worried."

"I'm fine, I just…" She trailed off, not sure how to phrase that she was worried about one of her father's team members, and someone that was at least five years her senior, if not older.

"Just what Em?" Alana looked into her daughter's eyes and saw the same gentle concern that she had seen in Jason's eyes when he looked at her for the first time all those years ago. Following Emma's gaze, she saw the sullen looking blonde man staring at the bottle of beer that he had been nursing for the last hour.

"You worried about Clay?" Alana knew that pushing her daughter was never the answer, she'd clam up faster than her father, but it was the girl's birthday after all, she shouldn't be concerned about something that was out of her control.

"He just looks unhappy mama" Unable to look at her mother, she stared at the man and watched as Sonny and Davis laughed, seeing the frown grow deeper on his face.

"Why don't we try and fix that then?" Emma looked up at her mother and saw the impish grin that she had on her face. "Go into the kitchen, I'll grab him and hopefully we can get him to look at least a little happier."

Seeing Emma's face rise with hope, Alana hoped that she was making the right choice. Emma was a lot like her when she was younger, full of fire and grace, but tempered with Jason's decision making skills. Once upon a time, she remembered seeing Jason for the first time and being just as concerned for his happiness as Emma was for Clay. Striding down the back steps into the yard, she stopped in between Sonny and Davis as they were trying to catch their breath after laughing over a story from Sonny's wild youth.

"Sorry to bother you, but do you mind if I borrow Clay here for a minute? Emma and I need a hand with something in the kitchen?" Alana smiled sweetly at Sonny and internally grinned in mirth when he jumped noticing Clay sitting beside him and Lisa.

"Hey there 'lana, sure you can take the pretty boy over there" Sonny laughed nervously, knowing that Alana didn't tolerate nastiness in her household, brotherhood was present long after the OP was finished and the papers were signed and that meant that in her presence, Sonny had to at least be civil to the new kid.

"Clay?" Alana gently prompted.

"Oh yeah sure, that's fine" Clay got up and left his practically untouched bottle of beer on the table next to Sonny and followed Alana into the kitchen, where Emma was struggling to lift more cases of beer from the fridge to the counter.

"Hey Birthday Girl, shouldn't someone else be doing that?" Clay joked to Emma before turning back towards where Alana was standing, only to find her missing.

"Yeah but you try and tell the boys of Bravo that they should come and find their own beer. I think there would be mutiny if we ever ran out." Emma grunted as she lost her grip on the last case of beer, but before the rest could tumbled out of her arms, Clay scrambled and managed to only lose one can of beer. Seeing the rolling cooler filled with ice, Clay and Emma stood side by side as they filled the cooler with beer.

Emma was nervous. She didn't know this man well enough to be having this conversation, but at the same time, she worried. Taking a deep breath, she blurted out "Clay?"

"Yeah Emma?"

"Can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer it though, I'm just being nosy." She rambled a little bit and stopped putting beer in the cooler before her face turned red and she ducked her chin. Clay looked up at her and was stunned for a minute, bright blue eyes, curled blonde hair, and flushed red cheeks made an adorable picture.

"Go ahead Em, you can ask me. I might not be able to answer though depending on what it is." Clay didn't know what was going to come out of her mouth, or what she could possibly want to know about him. He was a guy on her dad's team, maybe she was trying to get some information about her dad out of him. What _did_ come out of her mouth shocked the shit out of him, enough so that he couldn't even control his reaction.

"Are you ok? You look… sad" Clay looked into her eyes and saw the genuine concern shining through and couldn't stop himself before a tear rolled down his cheeks. Abandoning all semblance of putting more beer into a cooler, Emma wrapped her arms around him and hugged him while he tried to gain his composure.

Looking in on Emma and Clay from behind the kitchen door, Alana was shocked when with one question Emma got him to open up. In her experience frogmen were tough cookies to crack and didn't like showing emotion. Maybe Emma was a frogman whisperer, she was able to do that with any of the men on Bravo but never one so soon, with such a visceral response. Alana sensed someone walking towards her and felt the strong arms of her husband wrap around her.

"What are you looking at?" Jason whispered, thinking that once again his wife was spying on her daughter, who was much too grown up as of recently.

"Don't get upset" Alana spun in his arms and pushed her pointed finger into his chest. "I put Emma up to this because she was worried. I think it's going to be a good thing. She needs people in her life that understand"

"What are you _talking _about 'lana?"

She just pointed and followed Jason's gaze towards where Emma and Clay were still standing in one another's embrace.

"You want me to be happy that one of my men is hugging our daughter?" Jason whispered yelled incredulously

"No. I want you to realize that _your_ men haven't been paying attention to their brother, but our daughter has been. Let him get this off his chest, Jay, I think they both need this." They stood silently watching them for a moment longer before Jason broke the silence once more.

"What do mean she needs someone who understands Alana? Is she ok?"

"She's fine, she just, her friends have parents in the Navy but it's different with you being a SEAL. If she can find more people that understand what it's like that she can confide in, I'm not going to put a stop to that. She needs people Jay." Seeing her husband's look of disbelief, she put her hand on his cheek and looked into his eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"Always 'lana" His voice softened as he looked at the woman who had given him his pride and joy.

"Then leave it be, come outside with me and help me wrangle Mikey into getting her birthday present out. They'll be fine" Jason and Alana walked out hand in hand, sneaking past Clay and Emma who didn't even notice them giggling like school children.

Clay pressed his face into the blonde's sweet smelling hair and took a deep breath. Then another. And when he felt that he was calm enough, he lifted his head up and stared at her face, expecting to see pity or disgust. All he saw was kindness.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're not ok." Emma stated matter of factly. "You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to." She went back to putting beer in the cooler to give herself some time to collect herself after being surrounded in Clay's embrace.

"I… lost a friend of mine. A few weeks ago."

Emma grabbed his hand and squeezed, silently urging him to continue. "And being drafted onto Bravo is one of the best things that have happened but-"

"It's hard because you feel like everyone knows something that you don't know and you have no way of finding out what that is because no one wants to let you in on the secret?"

"Yeah." Clay was properly surprised. He didn't know that Emma was more perceptive than she let on. Then again being the daughter of a SEAL had to leave some marks.

"Where's your phone?" Clay swung his eyes back up to her face, again confused at what the girl was thinking. "I'm going to give you my phone number, when you think that you can't tell the guys something or you're stuck inside your head, just text me. I can't promise that I'll always be able to respond right away, but I will respond."

Clay handed over his phone and watched in amazement as she put her contact into his phone as Emmie K with a purple heart. She handed back his phone, finished putting the last of the beer in the cooler, and gave Clay one more quick hug before dragging the cooler out to the yard, leaving Clay standing awestruck in his boss's kitchen.

The first time that Emma received a text message from Clay she was sitting on her bed surrounded by textbooks and a mug of cold coffee, desperately trying to understand Trigonometry before her exam tomorrow morning. Her phone pinged and any thought of studying went out the window.

"Hey! It's Clay from Bravo, I'm not sure if you're awake or what time it is at home, but uh, you said that I could text you if I needed you and I do. Sorry if this woke you."

"Hi! I'm still awake, whats up" She shot off the message quickly, knowing that something must have happened for Clay to have reached out voluntarily.

"I can't tell you what happened, but I had to take a shot, the girl was your age"

Emma's breath caught in her throat. She knew that they used weapons in their job, she wasn't stupid. But to shoot someone that was her age wasn't something she wanted to think about. Another message pinged through. "Had a nightmare that it was you"

"Clay, I'm home, I'm safe. You made the right call."

"How do you know that? You can't possibly know that for sure"

"I know because I know you. You wouldn't have shot that girl if you could help it and you wouldn't have done it in cold blood. Love, I'm safe." Emma didn't get a reply for a long time, and she fell asleep on her books with her phone still in hand. When Alana came in to check on her the next morning, there was an unread message from Clay, and she smiled gently. She knew her baby well.

The next time Emma got a text from Clay it was again out of the blue. The pair had been texting off and on about little inconsequential things, but never about missions or details. Only about things like Emma's love for peanut butter and banana sandwiches and Clay's distaste for red gatorade. Or how Clay didn't really love beer, but drank it to be social with the guys on the team. Or how Emma missed her dad terribly, but never knew how to tell him. Clay confided in her more than anyone else, even Sonny. The boys had worked through their rocky start and were now thick as thieves, but even so, Clay trusted Emma more, which is why reaching out to her when he was scared came natural as breathing.

"Emmie K?" Clay was half afraid that Emma would be sleeping and that he would be left with his thoughts rattling around in his head, but as soon as he put his phone down it pinged.

"C? What's wrong?"

"How'd you know something was up" Sometimes he was genuinely amazed at how perceptive this girl was and how well she knew him.

"You called me Emmie K, you only do that when you're scared. What happened?" Apparently when Clay didn't respond in the 0.2 seconds that Emma was looking for, his phone started to ring and a picture of her smiling face popped up on the screen. Clay barely had time to put his phone to his ear before her shaking voice came over the phone.

"Clay? Are you alright? Are you hurt? What's happening? Talk to me!"

"Em I'm trying but you're not really giving me a lot of room to talk here. Everything is fine. I had a close call." Clay tried to soothe Emma through his words and his tone but she was having none of that.

"How close?" Clay didn't respond and Emma's heart jumped and she repeated herself. "How close Clay?"

"I thought I wasn't going to make my way out of the hole I was stuck in, literally. Thought I was going to break my promise." After one beer too many, Clay had promised Emma that he would always come back home to annoy her, even if it was the last thing he did.

Emma's heart fell back into it's normal rhythm and she felt herself relax. Clay was ok, he was still breathing but a little scared. She could deal with that. "I'm right here, you made it out C, that's all that matters."

"Stay on the phone with me?" Clay hated feeling weak, but just being near the blonde, even though it was over the phone, brought him comfort that he didn't even know that he needed.

"Of course." Emma got herself settled back into bed and started to sing gently. It wasn't long before she heard his breathing evened out and she followed suit, once again holding onto her phone for the entire night.

The next morning, Alana came in to check on her daughter and found her still on the phone with Clay, and she smiled, but also knew that this could be a problem that she had to talk to Jay about.

Clay felt a very strange sense of deja vu as he was once again sitting in Jason's kitchen, but this time he wasn't stacking beer into a cooler, he was grieving the loss of the woman that had welcomed him into her family with open arms. Scanning the room, he saw Mikey sitting next to Sonny who was trying to get him to open up with a few jokes. Saw Jason outside with Ray next to the old car out on the street. Looked around again, but still didn't see Emma. He wandered around the house, checking the normal spots where she liked to hang out, even checked upstairs in her mother's room, but still didn't find her. Knocked on her door and peaked in, still no sign of Emma. As he was walking down the stairs, he ran into Jason.

"Kid, you seen Em?" Jason was bone tired, but wouldn't be able to settle down till he knew that his children were being taken care of. His brothers had left, and now it was up to him to make sure that his family stayed together.

"I haven't, I was looking for her. I'm worried." Clay took a risk and was completely honest with his boss. He couldn't be sure, but he thought that Alana had at least told Jason some of what was going on between him and his daughter, but they had never officially addressed it. Guess there was no time like the present

Jason sized the kid up, looked in his eyes and saw the worry lurking behind the bravado. There were days when he swore that Emma and the kid were more than what Alana was telling him they were, but could never prove it. This was proof enough that the kid wanted it to be more, and Jason was ok with that. Or was trying to be. "When you find her, bring her home." With that he walked up the stairs past Clay. That was blessing enough for now, when the kid wanted to actually do something about those feelings, he could come talk to him himself.

Clay blinked once, twice and then he thundered down the stairs and raced out into the yard. He suddenly knew where Emma was, and he needed to get there, fast. He jogged down the path and found Emma sitting behind the bench that overlooked the small brook that was running through their yard. Her shoulders were shaking and the gasps that were escaping her slight body made his own chest hurt. Sitting down next to her, he pulled her into his arms and held her close until her sobs started to slow and she could mimic his breathing. Clay felt her moving on his chest and looked down at her, saw the pain in her eyes, and was overcome with the urge to try and take that pain away, any way that he could. He started to lean down and was inches away from her face before he realized what he was doing and diverted the kiss from her lips to her forehead. They stayed in that embrace for hours before Emma fell asleep and Clay carried her into her house, passed Jason who sat on the back porch, and into the living room where he stood watch all night long next to the blonde beauty.

Emma Hayes was far from stupid. She knew that there was something brewing between her and Clay Spenser, felt it deep in her heart since the first day when her mother conspired to get the man to smile. Emma tried to keep tabs on him, but sometimes it just wasn't possible when they went from one spin up to the next and she was trying to keep Mikey in line and do her homework and apply to college and keep the house clean and do all the things that her mother did effortlessly. Her dad had stayed with them for a little bit, but when he got the call that Adam Seaver died, she went with him to notify Hannah's family and dealt with the wave of emotion that reminded her that her mom would know what to do. Driving back to the house with her dad, Emma looked at her phone and noticed that Clay had answered any of her text messages. She knew that Clay and Adam were close, that Adam was his Green Team instructor and his death had to be hitting him hard, even if he couldn't talk about the details.

"Emma?" Her father's voice brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up at him questioningly

"Yeah daddy?" Her gaze focused once again on her phone while she typed out another message to Clay.

"You worried about him?" Her father asked her casually, though she could detect an undercurrent, but couldn't tell what exactly he was hunting for.

"I'm worried, he's not answering, he doesn't do that." They pulled into the driveway and before Emma could run off to her room, her father pulled her into a hug and looked at her closely.

"Go find out where his head is at Emmie, let me know if you need me." With that he gave his only daughter the keys to his truck and walked upstairs to his bedroom to try and find something of Alana's that still smelled of her to remind himself that love blossoming was something to celebrate rather than fear.

Smiling to herself, Emma got back into her father's truck and sped towards Clay's apartment, fully expecting to be sitting in front of his door till he got back from whichever bar that Sonny had dragged him to. She knocked on his door, and was surprised when the door swung open and Clay pulled her into his arms. She could feel tears dripping down into her hair. Emma made quiet shushing noises into his chest and walked the pair towards the couch where they sat next to each other. Clay once again pulled her close, and they stayed like that until his tears slowed. Emma lifted her head off of his chest, looked in his eyes, and this time didn't wait for Clay to lean in, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips and settled back into his chest. The time for conversation would come later.

"Emmie, I…" Emma looked at his stricken face and stroked his face, placing another kiss on his cheek, then resting her forehead on his.

"I know Clay, we need to talk about it, not now though. Just rest, I'm here" Clay settled down and closed his eyes, content that he was safe.

Discreetly Emma pulled out her phone, typed out a quick message to her dad and pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and settled in for the night.

The funny thing about life is that it keeps moving. Clay went on another spin up and this time brought the original Bravo One with him. Every now and then he could feel Jason's eyes on him, especially when he pulled out and smiled at the message that Emma had left for him, but they never spoke a word about it. They went on spin ups, went to the gym together, drank cheap beer, and avoided the conversation like it was their job, until they quite literally couldn't avoid it anymore.

Sonny, Brock, Trent, and Ray all strolled into the OPs center and stopped short very suddenly. Their Master Chief was lifting their rookie up from the floor and onto the seat nearest him. Very quickly Trent slid into medic mode and sidled up next to him.

"What happened?" Trent took a quick set of vitals before smacking him gently on the cheek.

"I'm not sure, Kid just went down, grabbed his ears before he hit the deck."

"How much you wanna bet that Bambi over there caught himself some sort of infection in that godforsaken jungle we just out of." Sonny piped in his two sense chuckling while Spenser came around. Seeing him open his eyes, they boys got him up and settled him in the chair while Brock got him a bottle of blue gatorade.

"I'm grounded on the OP aren't I?"

"Brother you can't even walk, yes you're grounded from the OP" Ray cut in before Jason could get a word in edgewise, not that his response would have been different.

"Besides, I don't think we're going to take this one. Charlie has better intel with this one. And Beau owes me one" Jason mused.

In the hurry to get Spenser off the floor, Jason didn't feel his phone vibrating. He didn't feel it the second time, and when he didn't answer a third time. The phone gave up it's ringing and the caller decided to try a different number. That's when Spenser's phone rang.

Clay pulled his phone from his pocket, but didn't recognize the number, yet still answered, going ramrod still at the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, yes, I'll be right there. Which hospital?" The boys hearing the panic in Clay's voice looked up from their files in concern as Clay rushed to get all of his stuff together. "Is she ok?"

That one sentence made Jason's head snap up and meet Clay's eyes, he knew which 'she' his rookie was talking about. "Spenser go!"

Not taking another second to explain, Clay ran out of the OPs center and jogged to his car, driving like a mad man to Memorial Medical. Flashing his military ID he ran through the ER and stopped short at the sight of Emma lying on a gurney with blood dripping down her forehead as she vomited everything that was in her stomach.

"What happened to her?" He growled at the nearest resident who was standing next to the nurse holding back Emma's hair before rushing over to her and taking her hair from the nurse.

"She came in after an accident in the school parking lot, she ran to help someone out of their car and got knocked in the head when the guy came to and started swinging. She's got a laceration on her forehead and a nasty headache."

"Why is she vomiting then? You don't vomit from a headache and I doubt she was hit hard enough for a concussion." Clay tried and failed to keep the scorn out of his voice, but the dumb ass doctor was no Trent and wasn't giving him the information that he needed.

"I gave her some morphine when I had to take the glass out of her cheek and forehead. She's having an allergic reaction to the medication based on the fact that she's vomiting, is confused, and has some slight swelling in her face. Do you know if she's allergic to any other medications?"

Clay looked down at Emma as she was in between period of vomiting and she looked miserable. "Emmie K, you know any other allergies?" He prompted while rubbing her back.

"No," she moaned miserably, "this was the first time that I've had to take pain killers. Please don't give me any more, please Clay"

"They won't Em, I won't let them." He kissed the crown of her head before turning to the resident. "Make sure that you put in her chart that she has an allergy to narcotics and analgesics. She can't take them ever again" He turned back to Emma effectively dismissing him.

Just as the doctor was going quietly out of the room, Jason ran into the room where the Kid had his daughter wrapped in his arms and was silently rocking her back and forth. He took a seat in the chair next to the bed and grasped her hand before looking back to Spenser. Thankfully, Emma had stopped vomiting and fell into a light doze before her father arrived and wasn't coherent enough to hear the conversation that was sure to confuse the shit out of her.

"Kid we gotta talk about this. What's happening here?"

"Jace, I wish I knew. It didn't start out like this, I would never take advantage of you or of Alana and-"

"Clay, calm down before you wake her up." Emma had started to stir when Clay started rambling. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at Jason and decided to be completely transparent.

"We started off as something, it's moving to something else. We haven't talked about it"

"You know you're seven years older than her"

"Yes"

"And a SEAL"

"Yes"

"I'm not ok with this yet, you gotta give me time."

"Jace, I don't even know what this is yet, I don't even think Emma knows what it is. Alana is probably the only one who saw this coming." Clay relaxed a little further into the bed and pulled Emma a smidge closer, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo.

"That's Alana for you, always ten steps ahead." Jason smiled gently as he thought of his late wife. "When you two figure this out, we all need to sit down and hash this out, the three of us. Then you have to tell the team, I won't keep them in the dark."

"Anything boss." Clay was just grateful that his balls weren't being hung on a nail to dry at this point, as he was very sure that Jason would make good on his promise to hurt any man who dared to look at his daughter.

"I'm signing her out, are you going to be ok with putting her in my car?" When Clay didn't respond, he looked at the pair and noticing the indecision on his face, he added "You're coming back to my place too Clay, she's going to throw a fit if she wakes up and you're not there."

"You sure boss?"

"Yeah kid, let's roll out."

And with that two men and one very drugged woman made their way out of the hospital and back to the comfort of Bravo One's house for yet another long night of worrying about his kids, seeing as he had just adopted another one.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: And now we're back to the present time! Lots of conversations! Important conversations! Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think!**

Emma came to slowly, blinking at the light that had been left on and took stock of her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was lying on the cool tile of the bathroom and praying that her stomach would stop rebelling long enough for her to catch her breath. She was tucked neatly under covers and her back was leaned up against something sturdy, but it moved rhythmically up and down, so it couldn't be her headboard. She tilted her head towards the ceiling and immediately regretted her decision as her stomach revolted and she shot up, thanking her lucky stars that she had put a garbage can next to her bed.

As she was throwing up, she felt a hand grab her hair and and another hand rubbing her back. "Shh Emmie K, let it out, you're ok" Emma knew that voice, made her feel safe, but she thought it was another one of those dreams she had when she was feverish, or really whenever she closed her eyes, but those weren't usually about being sick.

She leaned back into his arms and snuggled into his chest, happy that in her dreams she got to be with the man she was coming to love. Emma nuzzled her nose into the crook of his shoulders, causing Clay to snicker. That had never happened before in Emma's dream. Huh. Emma chanced looking up again and say Clay's beautiful blue eyes staring down at her once more shot straight up.

"What? Em, you good?" Clay rushed out, ready to grab the bucket if Emma needed to throw up again.

"You're home? When did you get home?" She threw herself at the man and wrapped her arms around his chest, sliding into his lap, trying to be as close to him as physically possible,

"This morning, Jace sent me to check on ya, you missed your check ins for yesterday and today." Clay informed her, infusing a bit of steel into his voice. It wasn't like the girl to miss checking in, but Clay and Jason both worked out a system of keeping themselves sane when they were off saving the world, Emma checking in was a big part of that system.

"I must have slept right through them, I didn't even realize that I did." She looked downcast and Clay tilted her head up with his hand to look at her face.

"No one's mad Em, we just got worried when we couldn't get in touch with you, thought the worst. Turns out Jace was right to be worried."

Emma slid off his lap and settled next to him before taking stock of the fact that both of them had IVs running into their arms. At her confusion, Clay responded "Trent"

"Why do you have one? Did you get hurt on the OP?" She struggled again to sit up to try and check Clay over and got as far as twisting around to try and tug his shirt over his head before Clay's hands stopped her.

"I'm fine, Em, just the adrenaline crash. Trent likes to make sure that I'm taken care of when I crash, you know that. I'm fine." Grabbing her hands in his he looked at her and didn't see anything else. Even sick, with red eyes and cheeks, hair a mess, with bags under her eyes, she was still the most wonderful woman that he had ever seen. Smoothing down a lock of hair that had come undone from the haphazard braid, Clay couldn't help himself. He leaned in and kissed her, gently and softly, unwilling to let go.

Emma's heart sped up when she saw Clay's IV and continued to ramp up double time when she looked into his warm eyes. She knew what was coming, but was she going to stop it? Absolutely not. Emma snaked her hands up over his shoulders and rested one on his firm chest and the other threaded through his hair and held on for dear life, because man could he kiss. Sooner than she would have liked, Clay pulled away and rested his forehead on her, panting slightly.

"Clay?" Emma asked, still trying to catch her breath

"Yeah sweets," Clay responded, trying to calm himself down and not mindlessly attack the stunning woman sitting in his deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth, he contented himself with knowing that Emma sat safely in his arms.

"What are we doing here?" And just like that, Clay felt like a bucket of ice had just been dumped over him.

Shifting Emma off his lap, Clay rolled onto his side to face Emma. "I'm not sure, Em. We haven't really had the time to talk about it before now. Your mom died, then Adam died, I got spun up for what felt like a year and every second that I've been away I missed you."

"What does the even mean Clay?" Emma sighed, exasperated by the non-answer.

"It means that I don't want this to end, I don't want to not have you texting me about your day, I don't want to not be able to go to you when things get hard, Em." Clay smoothed the tear that was marching down her cheek away. "I want this, right here, to continue, because it's good and.."

"... you don't waste good." Emma cut him off, finishing the mantra. "Mom used to say that all the time, one of her golden rules."

"I know Emmie, even Jace says it now." Clay chuckled remembering the times that Jason had used that phrase, mostly to get the team to do something besides drink cheap beer at the nearest bar. "Emma, do you want this, whatever this," he gestured between them "is." Clay held her gaze for a moment before closing his eyes, ready for Emma to let him down gently.

"You're not getting rid of me Clay, I want what this is, but we need to have a game plan. We can't just go around kissing each other and not know what we're doing. We need to figure out a way to tell daddy, and then the boys, and figure out if this is breaking any rules, and -"

Clay cut her off with a kiss once more and pulled her back into his arms. "There'll be time for that tomorrow love, right now you need to lie back. You're sick Emmie K."

"I'm fine Clay, I have a cold. You can't be in here though, if Dad sent you he's on his way. I don't think he'd like you in bed with me." Even sitting upright being supported by Clay, Emma started to sway again, feeling lightheaded. She went pale again and a thin sheen of sweat broke out on her forehead.

"Emma, just relax. It'll be fine. The boys put us in here together, they know you're not feeling well, it'll be fine." Clay soothed her and gently tried to pull her back into the firm support of his embrace. "Let me take care of you Em, you're sick."

"I'm not sick," Emma pouted churlishly.

"Ok love, just relax then, take a nap."

Unable to resist, Emma flopped back into his arms, the room spinning around her. She grabbed his hand and threaded her fingers between his, trying to fight the urge to vomit. With Clay stroking her hair and humming underneath his breath, she fell into an uneasy slumber content with the knowledge that Clay would watch over her, keep her safe, especially now that she had had some confirmation that whatever 'this' was, they were both on the same page. It also helped that there was one very smart canine who wisely kept his mouth shut while the humans had their conversation. They didn't need any interruptions just yet.

* * *

All Jason wanted was a beer, then he was going to find out where his daughter was hiding and prayed that that hiding spot wasn't with his rookie somewhere doing something that he didn't want to think about. What he wasn't prepared for was Ray's car in the driveway and all of his men dozing on the couch. Shutting the door with a soft click, Jason surveyed the scene and did a quick head count. Ray, nearest the door with his head against his chest. Brock, curled up in the corner of the sofa, drooling lightly. Trent, in the arm chair, looking more relaxed than Jason had seen him in weeks. And Sonny. Wide awake, looking at him wide eyed.

"Hey there boss man," Sonny laughed nervously, kicking Ray's foot, startling him awake.

"Sonny, Ray." Jason dragged out slowly, still unsure as to why they were sleeping in his living room when he was sure that they were going to paint the town, having the next day off from shore duty. "Either of you seen Emma? Or Clay, I sent him here to check on the kids."

Sonny gulped, and squeaked out "Well, lookie here boss, we don't really know what happened." Shifting from foot to foot, Sonny Quinn looked nervous, more nervous than if he were to find a shark in a jungle. Looking over to Ray, he didn't know how to answer so he didn't say anything.

When no one said anything, Jason dragged a hand over his face and ambled into the kitchen to find that beer. Ray and Sonny trailed in after him, not quite sure of what was happening. Taking a long drag from his beer, he pointed the neck of the bottle at Ray. "Explain, where's my daughter Ray."

"Brother, I don't even know the full story here, just as confused as you are. Got a call from the kid at the bar. Kid was panicking, told us to get here with Trent's med kit. We got here and things went to shit."

"The med kit? Where are they Ray? Who needed it?" Jason slammed his bottle down and moved to go around the wall that Ray and Sonny formed.

"Boss, I don't think you want to go up there right now, not a pretty sight." Sonny drawled, trying to figure out a way to tell Jason that there was some serious canoodling going on right above their heads.

"Is the kid with Emma?" Jason asked the boys point blank. Staring at their faces to try and discern why they were preventing him from going upstairs to check on his oldest child and his rookie. "Is that why I can't go upstairs in my own damn house?"

"How'd you know that," Ray moved towards the living room, intent on waking the rest of the boys. Maybe they were going to get to the bottom of this after all, before Clay even woke up from his adrenaline induced slumber.

"I sent the kid to check on her, if shit really did hit the fan, he's not going to let her out of his sight till I get there. Now is he up there?" Jason growled, "And someone better start talking about why the hell you needed the full med kit in my house"

"Oh yes, sunshine and wonder boy are both up there, but to be real honest here with ya Jay, I need more information than that, so why don't you sit your pretty little keister down and tell ol' Sonny what fresh hell we just walked into."

Ray appeared back in the kitchen with Trent and Brock in tow, and took a seat around the kitchen table. With Sonny's prodding, he took a seat at the head of the table with Ray to his right and Sonny to his left. Taking another long drag, he finished the beer and longed for a second beer, knowing that this conversation wasn't one that he was looking to have this late in the evening, this close after nearly having to be the one to tell Emma that yet another person in her life wasn't coming home.

"Brother, what's going on here?" Ray asked Jason softly "What we walked in on, we were blind, and apparently you withheld some of that information."

"Ray, I still don't know what happened. Why. Did you need. The med kit." Jason was losing his patience very quickly. If he thought that he could get away with it, he would storm upstairs and demand to see his daughter, but there were four very strong operatives in his way, and with the way his back ached right now, it wasn't a feasible possibility.

"We came into the house, looking for the kid. We didn't know that you sent him to find Emma, Jay" Trent spoke up, wanting to defuse the situation as much as possible, longing for some answers of his own. "We went upstairs and found them in the bathroom, Emma on the floor and Clay holding her on his lap. From what I gathered, Emma caught a bug and when Clay came in to check on her, he found her unresponsive and called us. You know the rest from there."

"Emma's sick? Why didn't she call Naima?" Jason wondered, looking at Ray, as if he would know more than anyone else.

"Naima didn't mention when I spoke with her last, I'm pretty sure that Emma didn't tell her, she would have mentioned it to one of us when we spoke."

Jason stopped short in his thinking and turned to Trent so quickly his neck snapped. "Trent, did you give her any medication? She's got allergies-"

"Jace, relax. I gave her some fluids. The kid made sure I didn't give her anything on the do not take list."

"I'm sorry fellas, but I am still confused over here. And normally that wouldn't be a problem, as I, I thrive in confusion. But someone had better tell me right quick why my sunshine is in bed with boy wonder. It ain't right!" Sonny slammed his hand down on the kitchen table. In the silence that followed his declaration, the five men heard the sounds of vomiting and moans of discomfort from upstairs.

Jason started to get up, intent on going to his clearly very ill child, but was stopped by a hand on his forearm and a glare from Sonny Quinn. "Son, I don't really know what to tell you here. They Kid and Emma are close, they always have been, since he joined the team."

"And we never knew about this why brother?" Ray questioned, thinking back to all of the times when Clay and Emma had interacted in the past, seeing those interactions in a new light. All of the inside jokes that they both seemed to giggle at, the looks they shared when something was said that they didn't agree with, the casual comfort present between the two.

"Alana said to leave it be, so I did. They both needed someone, especially in the early days when the kid was still trying to find his feet."

"Alana said to leave it be?" Sonny drawled incredulously. "Just leave it be? I'm calling bullshit on that way Jason, she was more protective of the girl than my grandninny over the rat she called a dog!"

"Yeah Son, she did, and I trusted her to tell me if there was anything else that I needed to know. And from what she told me, the friendship they share? That's good, and we don't-"

"...waste good." Sonny finished his thought, settling back down in his chair.

Trent spoke up from the other end of the table. "We definitely don't have all the information here to go around and make hasty decisions. I think the real question here is how his supposed brothers didn't know that he had to reach out to someone else for support that he wasn't getting from us?" Trent looked down at his hands somberly, and that statement seemed to take the wind right out of Sonny's sails, as he visibly deflated.

"And why sunshine thought she couldn't come to us when she needed help." Sonny mumbled.

"Glad you're seeing it from my point of view boys," Jason stated as he went to grab a round of beer for his brothers.

"Jay," Trent dragged out his name, avoiding looking at his face. "There's still one thing that's bothering me about this. "How does Clay know that Emma has drug allergies? They're awfully similar the kid's allergies."

Jason chuckled, remembering that very long night after Emma had tried to do the right thing and help two kids out of their cars after an accident. Carefully weighing his words, because he was sure that this was going to cause problems, again. "He's Emma's medical proxy if they can't reach me." And then he waited for the explosion that never came.

"Well now that's something that makes sense, finally." Sonny drawled, taking out a toothpick from his pocket. "Chances are if they can't reach you, they're going to be able to get to boy wonder somehow. Who's after boy wonder?"

"After Clay, Davis, and depending on why they're calling, she knows which of us to find and fill in."

"Brother, do you and Clay have, a, a system for going out on OPs together?" Ray mused, the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place. Jason had gone from having a rough time leaving his family, to being able to relax and settle into the routine of being spun up. Now that he knew there was a system in place to guard his family, it made sense that the man trusted Clay implicitly.

"Yeah Ray, we do," Jason admitted quietly, not wanting to have to admit that the great and mighty Bravo One had a weakness to his brothers. "Clay and Emma stay in contact, she checks in with either him or me once a day about Mikey and the house or about school, or really anything she needs to talk about. Naima comes by once a week to help Emma with the house stuff and give her a day off. Davis checks in every other day, and when we're on OPs, calls in so that Emma can relax a little bit. Blackburn has old friends that live in the area that keep an eye on the house that Emma can call if she's concerned. She's been pretty high strung lately."

"And what do we do Boss?" Brock spoke up gently.

"You all keep me and the kid from going home in a box," Jason replied, looking into the warm eyes of Bravo Five. "We all play our roles, not once has Emma missed a check in. I thought the kid was going to go over the rails, but he did a pretty good job at keeping his head in the game, that's why I sent him home first. He knows to check in with me if something went wrong."

The boys were quiet again, each silently sipping from their beer, lost in thought. The sound of more vomiting filled the air and they all winced, looking over at Trent. Clay's voice soothing Emma floated down the steps, but they couldn't make out words.

"Ok, Trent, I can't take hearing her vomit any more. You gotta give her something that'll make her stop vomiting." Sonny pleaded with the medic, looking from Trent to Jason.

"I don't think that I can, Son. If I give her the wrong thing, it's gonna cause the same thing all over again." Trent sighed, and pulled at his hair. "It's like having another version of the kid, except this time I don't know anything because I haven't been out in the field with her to even begin to know what her allergies are beside the narcotics. Who knows if she's allergic to antiemetics or really anything, I doubt she's ever had to take serious medication before."

The boys were quiet again. They never wanted to hear one of their teammates in pain, but hearing one their children in pain? Worse than any other torture that SERE could think up. All of a sudden, Clay's voice came loud and clear, and set every single man on edge.

"Trent!" followed by a loud, insistent bark from their hair missile

* * *

And just like that, all five men tumbled up the stairs.

Emma never fell back asleep fully, she just closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth that was coming from Clay. The man was like a human furnace, and to her sweat soaked skin, it was heaven. Still holding onto his hand, Emma felt her forehead break out into that awful cold sweat again as her stomach did it's best to try and climb out of her throat. A whimper escaped her lips, but she didn't dare to be any louder as Clay had finally fallen back asleep. Looking at his face softened in sleep, Emma tried to lift her other arm to stroke his cheek, but couldn't even manage move without feeling like her bones were going to snap. She settled for turning her face and kissing very gently against his chest. Feeling his arms tighten around her, Emma closed her eyes once again.

"Go to sleep Emma, I'm right here." Clay mumbled drowsily pulling her closer.

"I'm not tired Clay, just…" Emma trailed off and closed her eyes once again, a wave of dizziness and nausea overtaking her again.

Clay's eyes snapped open and looked down at her face once again. She looked paler than the white pillowcase her head was resting on. Something about the way she kept biting her lip and grimacing reminded him of something he couldn't place, but nonetheless, he sat up and promptly disconnected himself from his IV bag and got up to the other side of the bed. Emma, feeling the loss of heat around her, groaned in pain before twisting to the other side of the bed. The movement causing that wave of dizziness to swell again as she got sick again for what felt like the hundredth time that evening.

Clay handed her the garbage can once again and ran to the bathroom to get a damp washcloth. He didn't have much experience with taking care of sick people, and didn't remember much of being taken care of as a child, but when he was sick his grandmother would always put a wet washcloth behind his ears. Emma still hadn't stopped vomiting, though Clay was sure that there would soon be nothing left in her stomach to come up, as it was nothing but slippery bile at this point. When Emma started to sob through her dry heaves, Clay pulled his arms around her once again, with Emma's forehead resting on his shoulder. Clay hated hearing her in pain, her crying was one surefire way that he would do whatever was asked of him.

"Clay make it stop, please, please, please" Emma cried out in between sobs. "It hurts."

Clay ran his fingers through her hair gently, combing out the snarls that had formed, trying to think through a plan. He knew that his brothers were still downstairs, they wouldn't be leaving till they got some answers, but the real question was if Jason was home yet. He was in charge until Jason got home, but would the boys acknowledge that? Another round of vomiting started, this time Emma started to choke on the vomit as she was still sobbing in pain.

"Emmie K, you gotta calm down. Try and take deep breaths, you gotta spit that out, don't swallow it." His words didn't seem to make a difference as Emma started to cough and splutter, her eyes turning wide when she suddenly couldn't breathe through the pain anymore. Taking one look at her face, Clay had a sudden feeling of deja vu and yelled out once more. "Trent!" Even Cerberus got in on the action, lifted on ear and barked. Loudly.

Jason was the first one through the doors, followed closely by Sonny and Trent. They again found the kid sitting on the floor with Emma in his arms, but this time he was pounding on her back, trying to get her to take a deep breath. She finally took a breath and coughed, sputtering out more vomit. Clay raised his head from near Emma's and took one look at Jason before he got up to move away from her so that Jason could slip in, but Emma's hand reached out blindly to grab his hand, and well, that settled that. He wasn't moving.

Trent went to go get his med kit that was still laid out in the bathroom and moved towards Emma and Clay, slowly this time as he didn't want to spook Clay anymore than was necessary, as the wild look had come back into his eyes. Clay tracked his every movement with his eyes and raised a questioning eyebrow when he reached over for her IV.

"I'm just disconnecting her bud, nothing more." Trent soothed, replacing the old bag of saline with a new bag. "You think you can lift her and put in the bed again, or is she going to be sick again?" Trent waited with baited breath as a Clay studied Emma's face, looking for any hint of nausea.

"I'm fine, Uncle Trent. Not sick." Emma ground out, still not wanting to admit that a stomach bug was taking her down for the count, she had too much to get done before Mikey got home from school.

"Sunshine, now I don't know nearly as much as ol' Trent here, but I sure do know that when someone's hurling like that, they're down for the count." Sonny dragged out, trying to keep the mood light. There were already two too many concerned hens in the room, he didn't need to add to the tension. And as if agreeing with his humans, Cerberus whined and tried to place his head on Emma's shoulder from on top of the bed.

"I have to get up, Clay, Mikey's going to be home soon." Emma struggled and managed to get to her knees before swaying again, this time being caught by Trent as she pitched forward.

"Emma, stay down!" Jason told her firmly, incredibly worried that his daughter was more preoccupied with getting her sibling than resting, and getting better. "He checked in already, he's staying at the Porter's tonight." That seemed to do the trick, as Emma sank back on her heels and swayed for a moment, before Clay grabbed her shoulders again and placed on arm under her knees before lifting her up again. Getting her settled in the bed once more, he looked at Jason, silently asking if he wanted to be next to his daughter. At his head shake, he got back into the bed with her, but sitting up and holding her hand, too afraid to jostle her and start her vomiting again.

"Trent," Clay asked, quietly, desperately."What is this?"

Trent took a moment before looking at Clay, seeing the panic clear as day on his face and the tension that he carried in his shoulders. How he and his brothers had never seen the love that Clay carried for this girl was a disgrace, it was written all over his face. "She has a stomach bug Clay, and I'd hazard a guess that she hasn't been eating or drinking, got dehydrated, and now can't fight the bug off anymore. I'm worried though," At those words, five bodies stiffened. Trent was never worried, always confident that he could treat whatever injuries those boys managed to come up with in the field. If he was worried, they were worried. "I want to give her an antiemetic, but if she's allergic to it, it might be worse than what she's dealing with now."

"Is there a chance it could help?" Jason asked quietly, sitting down on the desk chair across from the bed, sharing a long glance with Clay. The night that followed Emma's first medication allergy was seared into their brains. Emma crying in pain, vomiting every fifteen minutes, unable to do anything. Having a repeat performance of that wasn't going to be pretty, but if it would help… well then the boys might just consider it.

"Yeah, if I give the right one, it'll help." Trent stated.

"Trent, you said that sunshine over there has similar allergies to Clay, why don't ya just give her the one you would give wonder boy? If it's safe for him, can't be too bad for her" Sonny reasoned, having been in the scenario with Clay before, as Trent was deciding which route was best. Their rookie was a medical mystery that no one seemed to be able to figure out, looks like sunshine was another one.

Another long glance was shared between Clay and Jason, which did not go unnoticed by Ray or Brock. Both men seemed to be making this decision together, without words. When did their relationship get to that stage? Ray's musings were cut short as Emma shot up again to be sick.

"Trent do it!" Clay growled as he crawled across the covers to grab Emma and prevent her from tipping over the edge of the bed as she dry heaved. Faster than they had ever seen Trent move before, he jabbed a needle into Emma's arm. Waited a minute, then put another needle into the other arm. Emma went limp in Clay's arms, and he began to panic for a moment, looking first at Trent angrily, then at Jason.

"Clay," Jason warned, wanting him to keep his head and not mindlessly attack the medic. Putting himself in Clay's shoes, if someone had jabbed needles into Alana without telling him what they were, he was pretty sure that he would have a similar response.

"I gave her IM promethazine, the same one that you get Clay, and a low dose of IM ativan. She needs to relax a little bit. You've had both of those before in the field."

Clay nodded at Trent's words, understanding that he was trying to help, but didn't want to let go of Emma.

Brock slowly approached with Ray, and placed their hands on Emma's shoulders to help move her as gently as possible. Clay moved back and let Trent, Brock, and Ray work at getting Emma set up in bed again. A glass of water was placed on her nightstand, phone in clear reach, and a fresh garbage bag placed in the trash can. But before Clay could sit back down next to her, Jason's command voice came out. "Downstairs, everyone. She's gonna sleep and we're gonna talk, all of us."

And with that, six men, minus one dog, went downstairs for what was sure to be a very interesting conversation. Clay lingered in the doorway, watching Emma sleep until Jason's hand clapped over his right shoulder and practically pulled the man with him down the stairs. Clay just hoped that his brothers would make this quick so he could go back upstairs to Emma, she needed him.


	4. Chapter 4

Sitting around the kitchen table once again, all six men had a beer bottle in front of them. The silence in the room was palpable, no one wanting to be the first to break the silence, each one thinking about the events of the day. Jason thinking about how he could take some of the burden off his oldest child. Ray thinking about what he would do if his own daughter came home one day with a team guy. Sonny was thinking about the creative ways that he could make fun of Clay for dating his sunshine, nobody was allowed to date her yet. Trent was scowling at the fact that he once again had another medical enigma to deal with, and to boot it looked like it would be more complicated than the kid. And Clay, Clay was thinking about how he was going to get back upstairs to check on Emma.

The silence dragged on for what felt like an eternity until Trent had enough. "Alright boys, we're gotta talk about this, nice and easy. No fighting," he said sternly, glaring at Sonny and Ray.

"I don't really know what there's left to explain," Jason sighed, "You all know everything that I know."

"Yeah but what we don't know is everything that's been happening between between Batgirl and Robin," Sonny ground out. All eyes were on Clay, who despite hating the taste of beer, drained his bottle in one go.

"What do you want me to say Son?"

"I want you to tell me exactly how this happened, it ain't right to take advantage of someone who trusts you like that"

"What the hell man? Who are you to try and tell me what's wrong and what's right? Or that Em is being taken advantage of? You still chase after anything covered in glitter!"

"At least those women are my age! And ain't being taken advantage of! They know what they're getting themselves into!"

At Sonny's words, Clay practically leapt across the table, ready to tackle the Texan sitting across from him only to be held down in his chair by Ray. Jason held Sonny in his seat with one glare. When he spoke, all five men listened.

"Now you listen here Sonny Quinn, I am in the same boat that all of you are in right now. I don't know what's going on here, am just as confused as you all are. But don't you ever tell me that one of my men is trying to take advantage of anyone, because I sure as hell hope that's not a dig at the quality of men that I've selected for this team." His voice growing softer and deadlier as he spoke. "And don't ever assume that my daughter can't take care of herself in whatever she does and whomever she dates. I know that I raised her better than that and that Alana raised her better."

"I wasn't trying to say nothin' about the way you and Alana raised your girl Jay, she's tougher than all of us put together," Sonny rushed to reassure him. "What I'm trying to say is that numb nuts over there should have had better discretion, should have known that she was off limits!"

"Brother, I think you need to take a deep breath here, you're making an awful lot of assumptions without even letting Clay have a chance to explain." Ray tried to smooth down the ruffled feathers between Clay and Sonny, but taking a long look at Clay's face, and after hearing Sonny's accusation, even Ray wasn't sure that he would take those comments lying down.

"You know what? Why should I even try to explain," Clay scoffed. "Sonny's still going to think that I took advantage of her, but yet fails to realize that I leaned on her because I wasn't sure that my so called brothers had my back!" His words seemed to slam every member of Bravo back into their seats. To hear from a person that they counted on with their lives, trusted implicitly, confess that he wasn't sure that he deserved the same treatment hit them far below the belt.

"I think," Brock spoke up, "that we need to understand, and we need to do so without judgement or ridicule. Clay, we just want to understand, will you answer our questions?" He purposefully left the choice up to Clay, because like Ray, if someone was making assumptions about his relationship with his girlfriend like that, he didn't know if he would even still be sitting at the table with them, and quite frankly, was impressed by the amount of restraint that Clay was showing.

"Yes," Clay ground out, fighting to keep his composure. He remained in his seat out of respect to both Emma and to Jason, as he was sure that if Emma found out that the men on Bravo had fought because of her, she would have something to say about it, and it would not be pretty. "ask away."

"Let's start at the beginning then. When did this start?"

"Just after Emma's eighteenth birthday, when I took that shot and hit the girl. She reminded me of Emma, with all her books and the MP3 player, and I was stuck in my head. Didn't know which one of you to talk about it with, couldn't let the thoughts stick in my head 'cause we got spun up right after it and couldn't be distracted, so I texted her." Clay sighed, wishing that he had something stronger than beer.

"And how'd you get her number?" Ray chimed in, jumping over the part where Clay didn't think that he could talk to his brothers, that was a conversation for when they were all a little calmer.

"She gave it to me, the day of her birthday. She asked me about Brian, and then told me in no uncertain terms that if I ever felt like I did that day again, to text her. I followed instructions."

"That does sound like my sunshine," Sonny agreed, "always trying to take care of other people. Just like her momma did." meeting Jason's eyes across the table, he silently tried to apologize for his earlier behavior.

"Brother, from there, how did this go down?" Ray redirected, trying to get to the heart of the issue.

"That's just it Ray, I don't know how it happened. One day we weren't even friends, and then the next she was the one that I wanted to talk to when things got bad. It feels like I've never not had her in my life because she knows about all the parts of my life that I try to hide, just like I know all of the things that she doesn't want anyone else to know."

"Clay," Trent jumped in, "does she know everything?" Trent put an extra emphasis on the end of his sentence, hoping that Clay would catch his intention without becoming defensive again.

"What do you mean everything Trent?" Clay put his head in his hands, sure that they were going to accuse him of passing on sensitive information. He thought that they had already been over this, he wasn't going to leak anything, to anyone.

"All of the times that you got hurt, the close calls, the missions we go on. Does she know about that?"

"Abstractly at best. I don't tell her more than she needs to know, but I don't hide things from her and she doesn't hide things from me. She knows when I got shot at it and banged up, hell she even knows about the nightmares, about Ash," Clay looked up from peeling the label off of his beer bottle. "I don't hide things from her."

The boys were all silent again, each taking in what they had heard. They sure as hell weren't expecting Clay to be so open with them, especially with the knowledge that Clay had talked to Emma about his father, as for the most part he'd been pretty closed lipped about that entire relationship, only gaining snippets here and there from when Clay got a little too drunk or was too upset to try and hide his emotions.

"Let me just see if I have this straight," Ray broke the silence once again. "You started texting after that mission, but when did it get to this point? Brother, you're not exactly acting like a friend here, which is partly why we're all so confused."

"I don't know, and I know that's not the answer you want to hear," Clay looked down at his hands again.

"I think I do," Jason spoke for the first time after threatening Sonny. At his words, Clay's head popped up and he looked at Jason's face, trying to decipher his intent from the look on his face. "My guess is somewhere between Alana passing and Adam being KIA, that sound about right?"

"How'd you figure that one out?"

"She came back different, looked at you like Alana used to look at me" Jason sighed.

Taking a moment to think about the series of events, Clay thought back to all of the conversations that he had with Emma, the longing looks that were shared, the stolen kisses that he sure as hell wasn't going to own up to right at this moment. "Yeah boss, somewhere in there," he admitted. "I think we both knew we were heading for something the night she called me after a nightmare, right after Alana died."

"I remember that," Jason chuckled. "Two in the morning you were banging down my door thinking that something happened. I open the door and Emma comes flying down the stairs, bypasses me completely, and goes right to you. Thought I dreamt the whole thing till I woke up the next morning on the couch next to your ugly mug." Smiling at the memory, but getting choked up over his daughter needing someone else besides him to get her through the rough patches still made him emotional. These were the days that he longed to have Alana by his side, she would know what to say, she saw things that most people didn't. "We got spun up the next night and didn't get a chance to talk about it, figured it was something that I needed to let go of in the moment."

"So what, this whole thing started to get serious three, four months ago? Something in that doesn't make sense Clay, you're acting like you've loved her for years!" Sonny still wasn't sure that Clay was telling him the whole truth.

"Son, I don't know how much more I can tell you that is all that's happened. Hell, I haven't even been home often enough to have a serious conversation with her about any of this before today. And today, I came home to my worst nightmare. Excuse me if I'm still a little unsteady." Clay spat, still in disbelief that Sonny, his mentor, his friend, his brother, didn't believe that he was telling the truth.

"Your worst nightmare?" Ray intoned quietly.

"Yeah Ray, how would you feel if you came home and found Naima on the ground, hot, sweaty, unresponsive after not calling you for three days when previously she called or texted multiple times in one day? How would you feel if looking at her, you weren't quite sure if she was even still breathing until you got right up close to her? How would you feel knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it because you don't know shit about medicine and couldn't help her? How would you feel?" Clay dragged out, eyes alight with fire.

"Terrified," Ray responded, picturing what his actions would be if he was in Clay's shoes. "I sure as shit wouldn't be as calm as you were when you called us."

"That would be because the training you all beat into my head kicked in, I'm in trouble call my brothers. I need help, call my brothers. Hell, I'm bored and need someone to shoot the shit with, call my brothers," Clay was silent again, before softly exclaiming, "It was my literal worst nightmare and one that I'm sure is going to be stuck in my head for a long time to come."

"But Clay, you did know how to help her," Trent interjected, "You got us there, you made sure she got the right treatment, made sure that I didn't give her anything that would cause her more pain. You did good, Clay." Trent didn't hand out compliments often, but when he did, he truly meant them, which eased Clay's heavy heart a little bit.

"I think the real question here, the one that Sonny is too chicken shit to ask right now, is what your plan is going forward. None of us want to see Emma jerked around here Clay," Brock, once again the most level-headed of the bunch brought them back to center.

Clay was silent for a long time, mulling over his thoughts. He didn't want to be telling his entire team something that he and Emma had only talked about maybe an hour or two before, but at the same time, he knew that they weren't going to let it go without some sort of indication that this wasn't a fling, that Emma wasn't just another body to warm his bed. Looking at Jason, Clay spoke slowly, but with sincerity that could not be doubted. "Emma and I make decisions about whatever this, is, together, what we decide to do will stay between us because I don't think it's fair to her to be sharing things without her consent, and I respect her too much to betray that trust," At this Sonny looked over at him in surprise, sure as shit that he was going to try and save his ass by telling every detail. "What I will say, is that at this present moment, I can't see my life without her in it, and hope that if it comes down to it, my brothers will understand and support my decision, and above all respect her decision."

"And brother, that's all we ever wanted to know, isn't that right Sonny?" Ray pointed stared at Sonny, hoping that he would get the hint that he had definitely screwed the pooch on this one.

"Ah hell, I'm sorry Clay. Anyone trying to go after my sunshine is going to get me all hot and bothered, especially because I didn't see this one coming."

"Still Son, you really think that I would take advantage of her? You really think that low of me?" Clay was still incredibly hurt by Sonny's actions.

"There's nothing that I can say that will take those words back, I'm sorry brother." Sonny was truly remorseful, he knew that he had put his foot in his mouth and would give anything to take those words back.

An uneasy silence took over the six brothers again, nothing that anyone else could say in that moment would convince Clay one way or the other to forgive Sonny, and if each of them were being honest with themselves, they would all be hesitant to forgive him that quickly.

"Sonny, you're my brother, and I will always love and support you in whatever way I can, but make no mistake. If you ever assume that I took advantage of Emma or imply that I hurt her in any way again, that will be the end of this relationship, and you will be no brother of mine. We clear?" Clay stared right into Sonny's eyes, trying to ensure that he knew that he was dead serious.

Without hesitation, Sonny replied, "Crystal" and the tension in the room dissipated.

"Now that we're all clear on the state of my love life, can I go back upstairs now?" Clay looked around at the faces surrounding him, but before anyone could get a word out, they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"What the hell?" Trent exclaimed, "The ativan should have put her down for the count"

"What kind of medication is that again?" Brock asked, trusting that Trent would only give a medication to any of them only if they truly needed it.

"A sedative, should have been enough for her to sleep through the night"

At Trent's words, both Jason and Clay looked at each other in disbelief. Emma normally didn't come out of medications well, whether that was anesthesia, pain medication, or even Tylenol really. They always made her groggy.

"Did you give her a full dose?" Clay asked, starting to rise out of his seat to go towards the stairs, unsure if Emma was steady on her feet.

"Yeah, the syringes come pre-filled with the dosage. It's a pretty fast acting medication, so it wouldn't have lasted very long, but still, an hour and a half is pretty impressive" All of the men waited with baited breath to see what state Emma would be in when she walked down the stairs, and more importantly, how Clay and Emma would interact with each other now that the imminent danger had passed.

Emma felt like shit. Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton, her head throbbed against her temples, and her throat was scratchy and sore. At least her stomach contents had stopped trying to make an appearance and she wasn't nearly as dizzy. Lying back on her pillow, she turned, half expecting to see Clay lying there beside her, but his 'spot' was empty. She could have sworn that Clay was there with her, holding her, making her feel safe again. Emma rolled over and felt the prick in her arm and looked down at the IV that was still in her arm. That confirmed that someone had been with her, but didn't confirm who, but by process of elimination, it could only be Trent or Naima.

Sitting up slowly, Emma put her feet on the ground and tested her balance. When she didn't wobble, she slowly began making her way towards her steps, holding the half empty IV bag in her left hand and holding onto the railing with her right. Before she could make it half way down the stairs, Clay rushed up towards her and steadied her left side with his hand.

"Hey there Emmie K, how we feeling?" Looking at Clay, Emma could see the tension that was still held in his shoulders and around his eyes and could detect the slight hint of panic that was still lingering.

"Better now," Emma looked up at him at the bottom of the stairs and kissed him gently on the cheek before she could think anything of it before going down and taking the seat that Clay had abandoned.

"Hi daddy," Emma said, resting her head against his shoulder. "Glad you're home. Glad you all made it home safe." She said looking at all of her uncles, one by one, stopping last to look at Clay moving towards the kitchen, rummaging through the draws of the pantry.

"We're sure glad to see you up and about there, Little Miss Sunshine, you gave us a good scare there for a minute." Sonny softened his voice a touch, looking at the girl that had seemingly turned into a young woman overnight.

"Uncle Sonny, I'm fine. I have a cold is all," Emma tried to reassure him, grabbing his hand in hers.

Hearing Clay scoff, Emma looked over towards him and raised an eyebrow, silently questioning him.

"Pretty sure that Romeo over there thinks that this was more than a little cold, and I'm partial to agreeing with him. You did not look half as good as you do now."

"Well, maybe it was more than a little cold, but I'm good now." Emma stood up again, intent on finding something that would stay in her stomach before a wave of dizziness came over her again and she sat down quickly and closed her eyes, trying to get her bearings again. When she opened her eyes again, Clay was squatted down next to her holding a bottle of orange gatorade in his hand and some of his favored advil liquid gel-caps. Handing them both to her, he got up again and went back into the kitchen.

"Clay?"

"Yeah Em?"

"Can I have some-" before she could even finish her sentence, Clay was back with a plate of apple slices and some peanut butter and honey, her preferred snack for all sicknesses. "Thanks," she said with a soft smile, grateful to have someone that knew her so well and to be surrounded by family that took care of her when she couldn't take care of herself.

"Emma, you gonna let Trent take a look at you?"

Looking over at her dad, Emma knew that this wasn't a question that she could say no to, but she didn't want to make a fuss over nothing. But then she looked at Clay, and her face softened. He looked like hell, and she was pretty sure that he wasn't fully recovered from his own adrenaline crash. Nodding her head and finishing her last apple slice, Emma sat back and waited for Trent to get all of his various equipment out for him to finish examining her so that she could go back to sleep, and hopefully convince Clay to come with her.

Ray Perry had seen a lot of things in his day. He'd seen a lot of relationships between sailors and girlfriends, seen a lot of marriages fall apart, but rarely had he had the distinct pleasure of seeing two people fall in love before his eyes. And that was exactly what was happening between Clay and Emma.

Damn they looked so much like Jason and Alana did when they first started dating. Moving in sync, orbiting around each other, always knowing what the other was going to do or was thinking before it occurred. Being around the two of them it was clear that Clay cared for Emma, no one could look into his eyes and think that he was in this for a bed warmer. As Clay cleaned up the kitchen and got another bottle of gatorade out of the closet, Ray turned to look at Emma. Gone was the chubby cheeks of babyhood and the crooked teeth of adolescence, in their stead was the gentle gaze of a woman who had seen some shit and lived to tell the tale. Ray was shaken from his thoughts by Trent and Emma standing up to leave the kitchen for the living room. As they passed him, Emma wobbled and nearly fell into his arms.

"Hey there, you good?" Ray asked, standing up to put his arm around her waist.

"Yeah Uncle Ray, just dizzy. Need to drink more," Emma nodded, trying to stave off the dizziness by closing her eyes and leaning into him. Ray looked over his shoulder and found Clay hovering in the background, unsure of what to do now that Emma had someone to lean on. Standing smack dab behind him was Jason, watching Clay look at his daughter with badly concealed panic.

"That's alright girl, Trent's gonna fix you up and you'll be right as rain again." Ray soothed as he walked with her into the living room, jerking his head so that Clay would follow them. At Ray's insistent look, he jumped double time and sat down on the couch next to Emma, hoping that he could offer her some comfort.

After her second wave of dizziness, Emma knew that there was absolutely no shot that she was going to be able to get out of an exam from Trent. The boys wouldn't allow it, and Clay for that matter would be increasingly overprotective until she got better. Not that she minded Clay being protective, because he was awfully cute while doing it, but a girl needed some time to herself.

Barely recognizing that she sat on the couch, she leaned back into the couch cushions and closed her eyes, overcome with a wave of tiredness. Hearing her favorite low chuckle, she cracked open one eye and saw Clay trying to hold back a giggle.

"Don't laugh at me C," she mumbled, trying to stay awake. Her words brought about other snorts and chuckles from the men standing around her.

"Not laughing Em, you gotta stay awake for Trent to take a look at you, I'm sure he's got questions."

She snorted and closed her eyes again, Trent would wake her again when he needed her. And until then, she was content just to be near Clay again, even if she wasn't snuggled in the way that they usually were. Wait. She could fix that one. Moving slowly, she slid down until her head hit his shoulder and moved over to press her side against his. Feeling more comfortable, she felt Clay put his arm around her waist as she drifted off again.

Once again Ray Perry was at a loss for words. Clay didn't even have to tell Emma that he was sitting next to her for her to sense where he was in the room. Didn't need to open her eyes to move into a position that made her more comfortable. Didn't care that there were other people in the room that might not like the way that Clay was holding her. Glancing across the room at Sonny, who was sitting in 'his' armchair, he saw the Texan glaring at first, but as Emma moved, his glare softened and their eyes met.

Ray knew what Sonny was thinking, but to hear him admit it out loud was slightly gratifying, maybe the old Texan was finally learning.

"You and sunshine look just like Jay and 'lana did back in the day," Sonny gruffed, remembering how Alana used to unceremoniously drape herself in his lap whenever she didn't feel good or needed someone in her corner when days got rough.

"She does," Jason agreed quietly. "Acts just like her some days, I'm worried that she's acting more and more like a mom than a kid these days though."

Everyone was silent, each thinking about ways that they could take the young girl's mind off of some of her responsibilities, at least for a little while.

Trent moved closer to Emma and took her temperature with the thermometer that had previously only belonged Clay, took her blood pressure and heart rate, and listened to her breathe all without waking the girl. But as Trent sat back on his heels and pondered, Clay knew that they would be moving soon for Trent to finish up his exam.

"What do you need Trent?" Clay asked quietly, shifting slightly to get a better grip on Emma.

"Can you lie her flat on her back? I want to check her abdomen?"

"Let me try to wake her, she's not going to be comfortable if she wakes up and finds you pushing on her stomach."

"Em, Em wake up a minute," Clay shook her gently, and patted her cheek. Emma stirred briefly. "That's it, come on, wake up."

"Whassup," Emma slurred, knowing that Clay wouldn't wake her unless he had to, the man liked his sleep just as much as she did, and she had finally gotten comfortable.

"Gotta put you flat Em, Trent's gonna feel your belly." Clay waited for his words to sink in, trying to ensure that Emma understood what he was saying.

"Ok Clay," They moved together as one unit, Emma limp and pliable in Clay's arms, trusting that he wouldn't let her fall.

Once she was settled with her head resting on Clay's lap, Trent gently started to push on her abdomen. Emma started to move away from his cold hands, but didn't protest too much. Even pushing on her belly, Trent didn't feel anything abnormal. No tension, or rigidity in the abdomen to indicate any bleeding. No hard lumps or bumps. Everything looked like it was in order. Standing up again, he retrieved yet another bag of IV fluids from his kit and hung another one to try and get some fluids back into Emma and then started to pack his kit up.

"She good Trent?" Jason piped up from the back of the room, wanting to ensure that Emma was ok, that this was just a nasty flu.

"As far as I can tell Jace, she's fine. Dehydrated, miserable and sick to her stomach, but nothing a few days of rest won't cure." Trent looked from Jason's worried face back down to Emma and saw Clay stroking her hair again gently, and once again wondered how they could have gone so wrong as to not see that their brother had fallen in love.

"You can all rack out here for the night, it's late and I'm tired. I'm going up to bed." Jason sighed, feeling the tension drain out of his shoulders and back, overcome with weariness.

Trent nodded, feeling a niggling thought come back into his head that he should stay, just in case. Sonny felt very much the same, he wasn't going to let Emma out of his sight until he was sure that she ok. Ray and Brock looked at each other and began to pack up their things, whistling lowly for Cerberus, Brock turned to Jason.

"I'm gonna head out with Ray, Boss. I think you boys have this in hand." Cerberus came running down the steps, stopped to snuff at Emma, and then heeled next to Brock, content that Clay would take care of his girl human.

"Kid, take her back to bed." With that Jason walked up the stairs, his men would figure out where they were sleeping tonight without assistance from him, they knew where everything was. Sonny and Trent followed him up the stairs, figuring that they would rack out in Mikey's room and would hopefully hear if Emma needed anything in the middle of the night.

Finally Emma and Clay were alone in the living room, the quiet that surrounded them was unsettlingly after the amount of noise that the boys created. Shifting Emma to rest on the couch cushion, Clay started clearing the beer bottles that littered the kitchen table and tidying the rest of the kitchen so that Emma didn't feel like she had to do it when she woke the next morning. Sitting down at the table, lost in thought, he didn't notice when Emma came up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder, the other hand holding the IV bag. Looking up at her, the love shining in her eyes made his heart stop in his chest. Scooting the chair back, he let Emma sit down on his lap and rest her head against his chest, content with holding her close.

"Let's go back to sleep Emmie," Clay whispered, almost afraid to speak too loud and break the serenity that surrounded them.

"No, not yet, I want to stay here with you a little while longer." Emma mumbled into his chest, placing kitten kisses on his neck, not wanting to move.

"Em," Clay squeaked out, unsure of where the blonde beauty was going with this, this was new, unsearched territory for both of them. Clay didn't want to make any assumptions here, but when a girl kissed his neck like that… Let's just say it was getting hard to keep his composure steady.

Emma raised her gaze and looked up at Clay, and taking the bull by the horns, let her lips press against his, over and over and over. Like a fish to water, Clay responded and let his love for her shine through his kisses. Slowly, slowly, both Emma and Clay pulled away from each other and panted, not wanting to break the kiss, but needing to breathe.

"Now we can go upstairs," Emma whispered. And with that, Emma was swooped into his arms and brought back up to her room, where they settled in for the night, hoping that they would be able to enjoy this rare treat a little while longer, because tomorrow, tomorrow things would go back to normal again.


End file.
